Arno Breker (19 July 1900 – 13 February 1991) was a German sculptor who is best known for his public works in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, where he was endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. He was made official state sculptor, and exempted from military service. One of his better known statues is ''Die Partei'', representing the spirit of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, which flanked one side of the carriage entrance to Albert Speer's new Reich Chancellery. After the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945 Breker continued to thrive professionally as a sculptor in the new

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

Life

Breker was born in Elberfeld, in the west of Germany, the son of stonemason Arnold Breker. He began to study architecture, along with stone-carving and anatomy. At age 20 he entered the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts where he concentrated on sculpture, studying under Hubert Netzer and

Wilhelm Kreis Wilhelm Kreis (17 March 1873 – 13 August 1955) was a prominent German architect and professor of architecture, active through four political systems in German history: the Wilhelmine era, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the found ...

. He first visited Paris in 1924, shortly before finishing his studies. There he met with

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

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, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and Alfred Flechtheim. In 1927 he moved to Paris, which he thereafter considered to be his home, in the same year he had an exhibition with Alf Bayrle. Breker was quickly accepted by the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim. He also established close relationships with important figures in the art world, including Charles Despiau,

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist, furniture designer and Landscape architecture, landscape architect whose career spanned six decades from the 1920s. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Grah ...

, Maurice de Vlaminck and André Dunoyer de Segonzac, all of whom he later portrayed. He travelled to North Africa, producing

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

s which he published under the title "Tunisian Journey". He also visited Aristide Maillol, who was later to describe Breker as "Germany's Michelangelo". In 1932, he was awarded a prize by the Prussian Ministry of Culture, which allowed him to stay in Rome for a year. In 1934 he returned to Germany on the advice of Max Liebermann. At this time Alfred Rosenberg, editor of the Nazi newspaper '' Völkischer Beobachter'', actually denounced some of Breker's work as degenerate art. However, Breker was supported by many Nazi leaders, especially

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. Even Rosenberg later hailed his sculptures as expressions of the "mighty momentum and will power" ("Wucht und Willenhaftigkeit") of Nazi Germany. He took commissions from the Nazis from 1933 through 1942, for example participating in a show of his work in occupied

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1942, where he met

, who appreciated his work. He maintained personal relationships with Albert Speer and with Hitler. In 1936 he won the commission for two sculptures representing athletic prowess, to be entered in the 1936 Olympic games arts competition in Berlin, one representing a Decathlete ("Zehnkämpfer"), which won the silver medal for statues, and the other The Victress ("Die Siegerin"). In 1937 he married Demetra Messala (Δήμητρα Μεσσάλα), a Greek model. The same year, Breker joined the

and was made "official state sculptor" by Hitler, given a large property and provided a studio with forty-three assistants. Breker was on a list of 378 " Gottbegnadeten" (divinely gifted) artists exempted from wartime military duty by Hitler and chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels. His twin sculptures ''The Party'' and ''The Army'' held a prominent position at the entrance to Albert Speer's new Reich Chancellery, as well as Josef Thorak's "Striding Horses" (1939), which until 1945 flanked the entrance stairs on the garden front of Adolf Hitler's Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The neoclassical nature of his work, with titles like ''Comradeship'', ''Torchbearer'', and ''Sacrifice'', typified Nazi ideals, and suited the characteristics of

Nazi architecture Nazi architecture is the architecture promoted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime from 1933 until its fall in 1945, connected with urban planning in Nazi Germany. It is characterized by three forms: a Stripped Classicism, stripp ...

. On closer inspection, though, the proportions of his figures, the highly colouristic treatment of his surfaces (the strong contrasts between dark and light accents), and the melodramatic tension of their musculatures perhaps invites comparison with the Italian Mannerist sculptors of the 16th century. This Mannerist tendency to Breker's neoclassicism may suggest closer affinities to concurrent expressionist tendencies in German

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

than is acknowledged. Until the fall of the Third Reich, Breker was a professor of visual arts in Berlin.

Post-Nazi career

Ninety percent of Breker's public works were destroyed during the bombings of Germany toward the end of the war. In 1946, Breker was offered a commission by Soviet leader

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, but he refused, saying "One dictatorship is sufficient for me". In 1948 Breker was designated as a " fellow traveller" of the Nazis and fired, despite which he continued to thrive professionally. He returned to Düsseldorf, now in the new

, which remained his base, with periods of residence in Paris. During this time he worked as an architect. However, he continued to receive commissions for sculptures, producing a number of works in his familiar classical style, working for businesses and individual patrons. He also produced many portrait busts. In 1970 he was commissioned by the king of Morocco to produce work for the United Nations Building in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

, but the work was destroyed. Many other works followed, including sculptures for Dusseldorf's city hall, portraits of

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

and

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...

, and a statue of Pallas Athene, helmeted and throwing a spear in the same bombastic style as his Nazi-era work. Breker's rehabilitation continued, culminating in the creation of a Breker museum, funded by the Bodenstein family, who set aside Schloss Nörvenich (between

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

and

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

) for the purpose. The Arno Breker Museum was inaugurated in 1985, and still open as of 2021. Breker's rehabilitation led to backlash from anti-Nazi activists, including controversy in Paris when some of his works were exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1981. In the same year anti-Breker demonstrations accompanied an exhibition in Berlin. Breker's admirers insisted that he had never supported the Nazis' ideology, but merely accepted their patronage. Breker's last major work was a monumental sculpture of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

intended to be located in Greece.

Marriages and family

Arno Breker was married twice. His first wife, Demetra Messala, was a Greek model; they got married in 1937. She died in 1956 in a car accident. He remarried in 1958 to Charlotte Kluge. They had two children, Gerhart (1959) and Carola (1962). Breker remained married to Kluge until his death in 1991.

Portraits (mostly in bronze)

* Baron von Mirbach, 1920 * Friedrich Ebert, Berlin 1924 (first state commission) * Walter Kaesbach, Düsseldorf, 1925 * Artur Kaufmann, 1925 * Herbert Eulenberg, 1925–26 * Otto Dix, Paris 1926–27 *

, Paris 1927 * Hermann Kesser, 1927 * Moissey Kogan, Paris 1927/28 * Inge Davemann, 1928 * Albert Lindgens, 1928 * Walter Lindgens, 1928 * Illa Fudickar, 1929 * Robert Gerling, 1929 * Arnold von Guilleaume, 1929 * Jean Marchand, 1929 * Mossey Kogan, 1929 * H. R. von Langen, 1929 * Alberto Giacometti * Isolde von Conta, 1930 * Abraham Frohwein, 1930 *

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

, 1930 * Edith Arnthal, 1930–31 * Demetra Breker, 1931 * Nico Mazaraki, 1931 * Robert Valancey, Paris 1931 * Prince Georg of Bavaria, 1932 * Andreas von Siemens, Berlin 1932 * Nina Bausch, 1933 * Demetra Breker, 1933 * Olga von Dahlgreen, 1933 * Arthur Kampf, 1933 * Victor Manheimer, 1933 * Nora von Schnitzler, 1933 * Robert de Valencay, 1933 * Max Liebermann, 1934 * Gottfried Bermann Fischer, 1934 * Max Baldner, 1934 * Kurt Edzard, 1934 * Graf von Luckner, 1934 * Anne-Marie Merkel, 1934–35 * Pütze von Siemens, 1934–35 * Kurt Edzard, 1935 * Anne-Marie Merkel, 1935 * Pütze von Siemens, 1935–36 * Carl Friedrich von Siemens, 1936 * Leo von König, 1936 * Joseph Goebbels, 1937 * Paul von Hindenburg, 1937 * Wolfgang Reindl, 1938 *

, 1938 *

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

, 1939 * Gerda Bormann (wife of

Martin Bormann Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, and a war criminal. Bormann gained immense power by using his position as Hitler ...

), 1940 * Edda Göring (daughter of

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...

), 1941 * Albert Speer, 1941 * Margarete Speer (wife of Albert Speer), 1941 * Bernhard Rust * Erika Baeumker (wife of Adolf Baeumker), approx 1941 * Gerhart Hauptmann, 1942 * Serge Lifar, 1942–43 * Aristide Maillol, 1942–43 * Alfred Cortot, 1942–43 * Abel Bonnard, 1943 *

, 1943 * Maurice de Vlaminck, 1943 * Claude Flammarion, 1944 * Gottfried Ude-Bernays, 1945 * Johannes Bork, 1946 * Lothar Albano Müller, 1950 * Ludwig Hoelscher, 1952 * Gustav Lindemann, 1952 * Wilhelm Kempff, 1953 * Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, 1955 * Rolf Gerling, 1956 * Hans Gerling * Friedrich Sieburg, 1961 *

, 1963 * Jean Marais, 1963 * Henry de Montherlant, 1964 * Marcel Pagnol, 1964 * Roger Peyrefitte, 1964 * Jeanne Castel, 1964 * Paul Morand, 1965 * Jacques Benoist-Méchin, 1965 * Henry Picker * André Dunoyer de Segonzac, 1966 * Marcel Midy *

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, 1967 * King Mohammed V of Morocco * Princess Ira von Fürstenberg * Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 1970 *

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

, 1974–75 * Ernst Fuchs, 1976–77 * Leopold Sedar Senghor, 1978 * Anwar El Sadat, 1980 *

Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomology, entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir ''Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful busin ...

, 1981–82 *

, Cosima Wagner,

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

, 1982 *

, 1983 * Peter und Irene Ludwig, 1986–87 * Gerhard Hauptmann, 1988 * Arno Breker (self-portrait), 1991

Sculptures 1935–1945

* (1935) * Relief on the Nordstern life insurance building, Berlin (1936) * (The Decathlete) for the Olympic Stadium, Berlin (1936, Silver medal) * (The emaleVictor) for the Olympic Stadium, Berlin (1936) * (Dionysius) for the Olympic Village, Berlin (1936) * (The Wounded) (1938) * (The Horse Leader) (1938) * (Grace) (1938) * (Torchbearers ("The Party")) in the courtyard of the New Reich Chancellery (1939) * (Sword-bearers ("The Wehrmacht")) in the courtyard of the New Reich Chancellery (1939) * (Walking horses), front garden, New Reich Chancellery (1939) * (The Herald) (1939) * (The Risk-Taker / Venturer) (1939) * (Readiness) (1939) * (The Avenger) (1940) * (Comrades) (1940), Breker-Museum * (Banner-bearer) (1940) * (Farewell) (1940) * (Annihilation) (1940) * (Victim) (1940) * (Striders) (1940) * (The Sentry) (1941) * (1941) * (Calling) (1941) * (The Victor) (1942) * (Kneeling Woman) (1942) * (1942) * (1943) * (1943)

Reliefs

* (1938) * (The Fighter) (1938) * ''Apollo and Daphne'' * (Departure for Battle) (1941) * (Departure of the Fighters) (1940–41) * (The Caller) (1941) * ''Orpheus and Eurydice'' (1944, Breker-Museum)

Books by Breker

* 1983 – ("Writings") Bonn: Marco-Edition . * 1987 – ("Encounters and Reflections") Bonn: Marco-Edition . * 2000 – ("Above All Beauty") Arnshaugk.

Films and videos

* , by Arnold Fanck, Hans Cürlis, Riefenstahl-Film GmbH, Berlin (1944) * , by Marco J. Bodenstein, 20 minutes, Marco-Edition Bonn. * , colour film, 60 minutes, Marco-VG, Bonn. * , and interview with Albert Speer. Colour film, 60 minutes, EKS Museum Europäische Kunst, Schloss 52388 Nörvenich. * (Time of the Gods) (1992)

References

Notes Further reading * Bodenstein, Joe F. (2016). ''Arno Breker – une biographie''. Paris: Èditions Séguier Paris. * Despiau, Charles (1942). ''Arno Breker''. Paris: Edition Flammarion. * Egret, Dominique (1997). ''Arno Breker: Ein Leben für das Schöne''. Berlin: Grabert Verlag. . * Hirlé, Ronald (2010). ''Arno Breker – Sculpteur – Dessinateur – Architecte''. Strasbourg and Paris: Editions Hirlè. * Klier, Hans (1978). ''Arno Breker – Form und Schönheit''. Bonn: Salzburger Kulturvereinigung; Paris: Marco-Edition. * * Leber, Hermann (1998). ''Rodin, Breker, Hrdlicka'' * Möller, Uwe (2000). ''Arno Breker – Zeichnungen-Drawings-Dessins 1927–1990''. Bonn: Marco Edition * Peyrefitte, Roger (1980). ''Hommage an Arno Breker''. Paris: Marco-Edition. * Probst, Volker G. (1981). ''Der Bildhauer Arno Breker – Eine Untersuchung''. Paris: Marco-Edition . * Probst, Volker G. (1981). ''Das Bildnis des Menschen im Werk von Arno Breker'' Paris: Marco-Edition. . * Probst, Volker G. (1985). ''Das Pietà-Motiv bei Arno Breker''. Paris: Marco-Edition. * Schilling, Rolf (1994). ''Eros und Ares – Begegnung mit Breker''. Munich: Edition Arnshaugk * Trimborn, Jürgen (2011). ''Arno Breker. Der Künstler und die Macht.'' Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag * Zavrel, B. John (1985). ''Arno Breker – His Art and Life''. New York: West Art. * Zavrel, B. John and Ludwig, Peter (1990). ''Arno Breker – The Collected Writings''. New York: West Art; Paris: Marco-Edition. * Zavrel, B. John and Webb, Benjiman D. (1982). ''Arno Breker – The Divine Beauty in Art''. New York: West Art.

External links

Web museum

Arno Breker Museum Official Site (in German)

Arno Breker Life, Work and Relationships with Modern Writers and Artists (in French)

Demetra Messala
Article about Arno Breker's wife
Arno Breker Appreciation Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breker, Arno 1900 births 1991 deaths People from Elberfeld Nazi Party politicians German modern sculptors Artists from the Rhine Province Olympic silver medalists in art competitions 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists German male sculptors Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Art competitors at the 1936 Summer Olympics Architects from Wuppertal